Photos: 28 Colorado Businesses on Outside's 100 Best Places to Work List for 2014

Outside magazine has put together an amazing list of the 100 best places to work in America -- a roster slanted toward businesses that are particularly friendly to active employees. And Colorado did extremely well, filling 28 of the slots. Moreover, many of the firms are independent, modest-sized and thoroughly homegrown.

Who made the cut? See all the Colorado entries below, complete with photos and excerpts from Outside data and text. To see the original post, including much more about all the Colorado businesses included, click here.

Backbone is a marketing agency that maximizes media exposure for active-lifestyle brands like Black Diamond, Big Agnes, and Eddie Bauer. The staff is also a tight-knit group of hard-charging skiers, climbers, cyclists, runners, and boaters who, perhaps because of their love for the adventure, are passionate about representing the best outdoor brands in the active-lifestyle realm....

LOCATION: Carbondale, Colorado

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 37

OVERALL OUTSIDE RANK: 95

Number 27: Aspen Skiing Company

For most of us, working at a ski resort is a dream job: endless powder, free lift tickets, and crowd-free weekday runs. Aspen Skiing Company, one of the world's last remaining independently owned and operated ski resorts, is a great place to live out that dream. The company owns lodges, restaurants, retail shops, and, oh yeah, world-class mountains at Snowmass, Aspen, Buttermilk, and Aspen Highlands. Its ultimate guiding principle: to renew the human spirit by sustaining what it dubs the "Aspen idea," in which mind, body, and spirit are all nurtured....

LOCATION: Aspen, Colorado

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 935

OVERALL OUTSIDE RANK: 83

Number 26: Development Counsellors International

Development Counsellors International is in the business of finding and supporting great destinations. The economic development and travel marketing firm has worked with more than 450 cities, regions, states, and countries to help them attract investors and tourists. As DCI puts it, in telling the stories of all these great places to the media, the company helps to create prosperity and economic growth for the locals. Sound lofty? Perhaps. But every year, DCI helps clients position their communities to attract visitor dollars and development projects....

LOCATION: New York, New York, with Denver office

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 50

OVERALL OUTSIDE RANK: 80

Number 25: Namasté Solar

Namasté Solar provides a full suite of solar services--design, engineering, installation, maintenance, and consulting--to customers in Colorado. Given the company's specialty, it's fitting that its office is a LEED Gold Certified building. The staff is just as obsessed with their own health as they are with the environment. Almost all of these Boulderites are competitive athletes....

LOCATION: Boulder, Colorado

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 80

OVERALL OUTSIDE RANK: 73

Continue to continue counting down the 28 Colorado businesses on Outsisde's 100 best places to work list for 2014.Number 24: ShipCompliant

Shipping wasn't always easy. Taxes and varying regulations made it difficult for anyone working with alcohol to sell and ship their products. Enter ShipCompliant. The company helps change the way wineries, breweries, distilleries, and importers do business through compliance (that is, staying up to date on laws) and transaction platforms. The goal: Let the client focus on making great wine, beer, or spirits....

LOCATION: Boulder, Colorado

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 42

OVERALL OUTSIDE RANK: 70

Number 23: Charles Cunniffe Architects

Some firms design gorgeous homes. Others specialize in sustainability. Charles Cunniffe Architects marries both approaches to create socially responsible and sophisticated residential, mixed-use, and commercial projects. The culture of design is at the company's core, and the outdoors is often the inspiration -- which is why you'll find the staff on the snow, bike, or hiking trails....

LOCATION: Aspen, Colorado

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 20

OVERALL OUTSIDE RANK: 63

Number 22: FullContact

Admit it: Your address book is a mess. There is, however, a solution. FullContact hopes to follow in the steps of Dropbox (files) and Evernote (reminders and notes) to revolutionize the address book with an in-the-cloud solution that gathers your contacts from all places -- Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn -- and centralizes them in one up-to-date resource. But big breakthroughs don't come without inspiration, so to keep ideas flowing, the staff takes hiking meetings and the company supports policies that make indulging personal passions easy....

LOCATION: Denver, Colorado

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 41

OVERALL OUTSIDE RANK: 61

Number 21: Slice of Lime

Slice of Lime is a user-experience design agency that creates intuitive and engaging experiences on web apps, mobile apps, and connected devices. The goal? A product that's as functional as it is attractive. The team is great with design, but they're also hard-chargers. In a recent competition among Boulder-based companies, they logged the sixth most miles on the bike and in running shoes (beating 15 other squads). Among its competition: the bike-obsessed apparel company Pearl Izumi....

LOCATION: Boulder, Colorado

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 15

OVERALL OUTSIDE RANK: 55

Continue to continue counting down the 28 Colorado businesses on Outsisde's 100 best places to work list for 2014.Number 20: StoneAge

StoneAge designs and manufactures high-pressure water-blasting tools -- durable, high-tech, and powerful products used to clean things you never imaged were cleanable (pipes, tubes, and tanks). All of the company's products are designed, manufactured, and assembled in the United States and exported to dealers in 47 countries. The company is staffed with athletes who hit the Durango trails hard on wheels, skis, kayaks, horses, and their own two feet....

In 1976, Sal and Gail Glesser bought an old bread delivery truck and hit the road, roaming from one state fair and campground to the next, selling knife sharpeners. The company's first big hit was a thin ceramic triangle that made sharpening serrated blades easier. Soon, the company began designing knives with a flair for one-handed opening. Now, the family-owned Spyderco makes a range of knives, from kitchen cutlery to backcountry survival blades to knives used by law enforcers and soldiers....

LOCATION: Golden, Colorado

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 70

OVERALL OUTSIDE RANK: 50

Number 18: Bluetent

Marketing has changed. Digital agencies like Bluetent, which specializes in travel, tourism, and hospitality industries, aren't just sending out press releases; they're also developing strategy, building gorgeous and responsive sites, and digging into analytics to provide data-driven marketing solutions. The Bluetent team has easy access to world-class hiking, biking, and skiing trails. And it makes a difference -- they play hard to work harder....

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To interest advertisers, social networks have to prove they can drive sales with stories. That's where Datalogix comes in. You buy Axe deodorant at the store with your loyalty card. Datalogix partners with Facebook so one of Axe's competitors can purchase ads targeted to you. It's a game-changing service that convinces advertisers to spend their money where it actually makes a difference. When the staff isn't reinventing advertising, they're bonding through health: walking meetings, an on-site CrossFit box, unlimited "recharging" time, bike commutes, and weekly farm-to-table barbecues keep the crew tightly knit and motivated....

LOCATION: Westminster, Colorado

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 430

OVERALL OUTSIDE RANK: 42

Continue to continue counting down the 28 Colorado businesses on Outsisde's 100 best places to work list for 2014.Number 16: TrainingPeaks

Have a coach? Chances are she uses TrainingPeaks to help you hit new personal bests. The company provides field-leading Web, mobile, and desktop training products to plan, track, and analyze workouts for athletes and coaches, including Tour de France teams, Ironman champions, and Olympians. The company is filled with fitness-obsessed people, like co-founder and chief evangelist Dirk Friel, himself a former pro cyclist. With a fully functional workout room stocked with state-of-the-art equipment and an athlete recovery room, work and working out go hand in hand....

LOCATION: Boulder, Colorado

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 47

OVERALL OUTSIDE RANK: 41

Number 15: Sterling-Rice Group

Sterling-Rice Group is a brand-building firm that specializes in consumer insights, business strategy, innovation, advertising, and design. Its work has a bent toward brands that promote healthy living -- clients include Qdoba, Pur, Bolthouse Farms, and Earth Balance....

LOCATION: Boulder, Colorado

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 111

OVERALL OUTSIDE RANK: 40

Number 14: Crestone Capital Advisors

Crestone is an employee-owned fiduciary wealth management firm that offers global investing expertise and comprehensive service to entrepreneurs, CEOs, multigenerational families, and foundations with soaring net worths. Crestone seeks to deliver clients peace of mind in their financial lives by combining a sophisticated investment platform and a high-touch service model with exceptional security, transparency, and comprehensive reporting....

LOCATION: Boulder, Colorado

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 36

OVERALL OUTSIDE RANK: 39

Number 13: Pellucid Analytics

Simply put, Pellucid fixes pitch books for investment bankers with an iPad- and browser-based platform. The founders cut their teeth on Wall Street before mellowing out in the Rockies, which is why staff strike a balance between hard work and sufficient play -- be it on the nearby Boulder Creek bike and running path or the Wii on the office big screen....

LOCATION: Boulder, Colorado

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 41

OVERALL OUTSIDE RANK: 38

Continue to continue counting down the 28 Colorado businesses on Outsisde's 100 best places to work list for 2014.Number 12: SolidFire

Don't let the IT guy read this. TrackVia aims to empower nontechnical people (that's you) to build business applications tailored to their unique needs -- tracking sales, managing projects, eliminating paperwork, and collecting data. The advantage: It's faster and less expensive than working with an outside partner, and the end-product is customized to your exact needs....

LOCATION: Denver, Colorado

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 47

OVERALL OUTSIDE RANK: 26

Number 10: Adaptive Sports Center

A nonprofit with a penchant for bombing down mountains, the Adaptive Sports Center aims to enhance the quality of life for those with disabilities through instructor-guided outdoor activities. That means a lot of paid time spent skiing, snowboarding, ski biking, ice climbing, mountain biking, and kayaking....

Tandem paragliding in New York? Done. Sunset catamaran cruise on the San Francisco Bay? No sweat. Cloud 9 Living offers more than 1,800 U.S.-based experience gifts, ranging from kayaking lessons and hot air balloon rides to Ferrari racing and urban food tours. Best of all, employees get to cash in on four yearly company experiences....

LOCATION: Boulder, Colorado

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 17

OVERALL OUTSIDE RANK: 16

Number 7: RoundPegg

RoundPegg uses software to help companies manage in-office culture. Thinking of hiring a new employee? The company has a quantitative analysis of how well that person might fit in. Looking to develop young staffers? It has coaching and development tools. Translation: RoundPegg helps make sure that offices mesh and are firing on all cylinders....

LOCATION: Boulder, Colorado

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 18

OVERALL OUTSIDE RANK: 15

Number 6: Global Works

Global Works runs two-week to monthlong adventure travel programs for high school students, as well as custom group trips in more than 20 countries. On every excursion, Global Works partners with local communities and organizations to organize grassroots service projects for its travelers. Global Works staffers get to partake in the same travel experiences they create....

LOCATION: Boulder, Colorado

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 17

OVERALL OUTSIDE RANK: 14

Number 5: ReadyTalk

ReadyTalk provides user-friendly audio and Web conferencing services for everything from small ad hoc meetings to large online events. It offers a full suite of tools for training, collaboration, and webinars. But with 14ers calling from the looming Front Range -- not to mention the diversions in the office gaming room -- don't expect employees to stay glued to their screens. There's on-site yoga and massage therapy, and even the occasional staff meeting at Rockies games or on the ski hill....

LOCATION: Denver, Colorado

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 170

OVERALL OUTSIDE RANK: 11

Continue to continue counting down the 28 Colorado businesses on Outsisde's 100 best places to work list for 2014.Number 4: New Belgium Brewing

An employee-owned craft brewery, New Belgium crafts Belgian-inspired brews and three new seasonal beers every quarter. Some of its well-known year-round varieties include Fat Tire Amber Ale, Ranger IPA, and Trippel. New Belgium also happens to be one of country's the longest-running producers of craft sour beers....

A small PR firm, GroundFloor Media handles strategic communications, marketing, and digital and social media campaigns for companies like Oskar Blues Brewery and Cabela's -- and employees don't even have to show up to the office to do it....

LOCATION: Denver, Colorado

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 16

OVERALL OUTSIDE RANK: 4

Number 1: Sphero

Sphero fuses games with robotics to create its smart toys, Sphero and Ollie, two rolling robots that you can control with your smartphone. It's no surprise that Sphero encourages plenty of goofing off on the job....